Console Subsystem Enhancements

The following console subsystem enhancement has been added to the Solaris Solaris 10 8/07 release.

Coherent Console

The coherent console feature implements a part of the kernel console
subsystem to facilitate rendering console output, The coherent console uses
the Solaris kernel mechanisms to render console output rather than Programmable
Read-Only Memory (PROM) interfaces. This reduces the console rendering dependence
on OnBoot PROM (OBP).

The coherent console uses a kernel-resident framebuffer driver
to generate console output. The generated console output is more efficient
than using OBP rendering. The coherent console also avoids idling CPUs during
SPARC console output and enhances the user experience.